dmSimpleApps

Friday, April 25, 2014

dmMediaConverter is a crossplatformFFmpeg frontend (GUI) exposing some of its features. It is intended to be simple and easy to use but also to be able to achieve complex tasks. I have inspired myself from a lot of media converters like Handbrake, WinFF and MkvMergeGui. One feature was lacking from most of them, video stream copy (pass-through), that made me build this.

Main features:

stream copy (video, audio, subtitle)

stream conversion - almost any codec into:

video - h264, h265, vp8, vp9

audio - aac, mp3, flac, pcm, vorbis, opus

subtitles - srt, ass, ssa, mov_text, dvdsub

addmultiplestreams into one mkv, mp4 or any other container known by ffmpeg that accepts multiple streams (with or without reencoding). Supports multiple video streams in the same file. Also you can reorder stream position.

stream profiles - create and apply audio and video profiles

merge files with the same properties - no reencoding. Ex. Files made by a phone or camera.

merge different kind of files (different codecs, resolution, etc) into one file. It chooses an output with the biggest width of all source files.

Quick start-up guide:
1. Select job type
2. Add source files
3. Modify stream parameters.
- "Enable" checkbox - means that the stream will be present in the output file
- "Copy" checkbox - stream will not be reencoded, only copied, so, stream options (lower part of the app) will be disabled. To modify stream just unckeck it and you will be able to choose codec and various audio / video options.
- To enable Picture settings on a video stream (crop, pad , rotate, etc) first, you need to uncheck "Copy" and click the video screenshot or just click on Picture Settings button. Options seted here will be automatically saved when you close this window. If you reopen "Picture Settings" later all settings for that video stream, now, will be preserved.
4. Hit "Run now" button to start conversion. The application will ask you for an output file and depending on the file extension chosen will use the proper format (container). i recommend Matroska (.mkv) because it is compatible with all the codecs available in the app.
5. Sit back and wait for it to finish. What you see in the Output tab is exactly the ffmpeg output. You can approximate the progress by looking at the written time (100% = source file duration).

Use stream profiles:
1. create - You are able to create a new stream profile only in convert mode but you can apply them for different job types. So, first import a file and unckeck copy. Then make desired settings and from Main Menu : Profiles - Add, choose a profile name, just make sure it is a meaningful one. That's it. You must create different profiles for audio and video. A video profiles also stores filter settings (Picture Settings). Using profiles is the only way to apply video filters in bulk mode.
2. apply - Just right clik on audio or video stream settings panel and apply desired profile.
3.delete - From Main Menu choose Profiles - Delete and pick the your desired stream.

Use Bulk mode:
Let's start with an real example: Extract audio from Youtube videos and convert them to mp3s (mp4 to mp3).
1. Select Bulk mode and drag and drop your files.
2. From bulk mode set Video to "None".
3. Set Audio to "Audio Tab" and then press audio tab and choose mp3 encoder.
4. From bulk tab again choose container mp3 and select an output directory. That's it. Press Add Job and click Start.

Here is another option: nth which means to extract only the nth audio stream form the file. It is useful when exporting to containers that accept only one audio stream and source files contains multiple tracks.

Rip and Convert DVD, BD and ISO files:dmMediaConverter does not support ripping DVD, blue ray disks or ISO files. So, you need an companion app, and i have found the perfect match for it, MakeMkv.MakeMKV is the best ripping software i sow so far. It is small, efficient and has a windows, mac and linux client. It does not do any compression, it only dectypts the mpeg2 dvd stream and it saves it into a mkv container. A very fast operation.
So, first,use MakeMkv by opening the disk/iso file then choosing the desired titles and the output folder for mkv files. It generates an file per title. The mkv contains the raw mpeg2 ac3 and dvdsub streams, which are big.
Then, with dmMediaConverter you can change them into anything you like. So simple. :-)http://www.makemkv.com/

Add Watermark / Logo:dmMediaConverter, now (v1.8.0), can watermark a video file. You can use the recommended png image format or jpeg (also another video file - buggy) .

Some notes:
It is a multiplatform app written with Lazarus IDE. It supports Linux, Windows and Mac. The native Mac version it is available on Amazon for 5$, see the link below. For free on Mac, you can use Windows version under Wine (WineBottler), it is working just fine.
I do not know it yet or promise that the app will be released as Open Source. Nevertheless, it will be free here.If you like the app and want to continue it's development, please donate. Any amount will be appreciated.
With this app i also distribute a ffmpeg static build without modifying any of its source files. I have not studied, yet, legal implications.
The app has no installer, it is a portable app so just extract the app folder anywhere you like. For Linux just check executable permissions for the app, ffmpeg and ffprobe binarys from bin sub-folder.
Now, on Debian systems, (ex. Ubuntu) you can install the app using DEB files for x86 and x64. Just hit "Download app" link. The same form RPM files.

Please report impressions, bugs and features requests.

Known issues:
- you tell me!

If you like my app and you have an Amazon account, please RATE IT or BUY it ;). You can vote without a purchase. See the Amazon links below.Also, donations are highly appreciated, they will keep me going :-)
Thank you.